NO!

It was the price raise.

Not really. It's still selling at about the same rate as it was in 2008, excluding the predictable sales boosts corresponding with the launch of SSBB in Japan and America. Historically speaking, sales of consoles begin to drop immediately after the holidays are over, hitting their yearly lows around March and April, then slowly recover momentum as the year goes on. And of course, with very very few exceptions, consoles sell 1/3rd to 1/2 of their yearly units in November and December combined.

Wii is actually doing better in Other this month since the market share this month actually goes up comparing to last year. (46.53% to 48.31%)

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 04th Apr 2009 to 18th Apr 2009:

Wii/PS3/360 = 48.31%/23.56%/28.13%

VGChartz Hardware data for the period 05th Apr 2008 to 03rd May 2008:

Wii/PS3/360 = 46.53%/30.44%/23.03%

As NA numbers, there is no way for Nintendo to outsell last year when SSBB, MK and Wii Fit launch in March, April and May. However, with WSR coming in July and a better summer lineup than last year, the summer sale would be promising.

great post!!

Yes, it's losing steam. They need to do something.

I don't think PS3 or Xbox 360 will be gaining though, the decline is not related to market share. Which is another reason, the MAIN reason, why Nintendo definitely needs to do something.

Don't celebrate it.

You do realize that in 2008, the Wii sold more 3rd party software than any other system, right?

I mean, I should hope that somebody who comes to VGChartz would only say what you said as some kind of joke.

Look at the graphs for world wide sales compared to the DS. It's still sold more than the DS had at this point in its lifecycle. Weekly sales have taken a dip, but I think that's really a consequence of the poor late 2008 release schedule. In my opinion, the lack of any really big games has led to a slightly deeper than usual post xmas dip. I'd imagine this dip wasn't expected by Nintendo, and they were hoping for more success from Wii Music.

The arrival of a couple of mass market (whether casual or mass gamer appeal - it doesn't matter) titles will push things back up again. Monster Hunter 3 should do that in Japan. Wii Sports Resort will likely do the same across the whole world. The release of a sizeable number of limited appeal games of decent to excellent quality (Madworld, The Conduit, Little King's Story) will help to stabilise, but won't cause any new surges.

I think that there's a lot of doom-mongering for the Wii across the internet that's largely based on the misinterpretation of a slowing in sales that's only slightly greater than to be expected at this time of year. There's no cogent reason to think that this increased slowing is evidence of some catastrophic collapse in sales for the Wii. Those making that kind of claim appear to simply be indulging in wishful thinking*.

* Please also note the wide misinterpretation of recent Tie Ratio data for Wii and PS3 that fails to note that the reason for the drop in Wii tie ratio and the climb in PS3 tie ratio is nothing to do with a change in software sales, but is instead to do with an upswing in Wii hardware sales and a decline in PS3 hardware sales.

Very happy to see you use my word (Nintendians), and I hope to see it's continued use on these forums.

As for the question in the OP, no.

Sales wise yes, but I think Nintendo have a lot left to do with the Wii so worry not!